Writing is a political instrument.

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.

Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it. Everyone desires love but also finds it impossible to believe that he deserves it.

The making of an American begins at the point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and himself adopts the vesture of his adopted land.

I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.